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By Lookout Staff
July 5 -- City officials and preservation activists
are preparing what they hope will be the final move for a
century-old shotgun house saved from the wrecking ball only
to go without a permanent home for five years.
Last week, the City Council took initial steps to move the
house -- which is currently being stored at the old Fisher
Lumber site -- to a parking lot across for the Ocean Park
Library.
As part of the motion, the council authorized the issuance
of a Request for Proposals to select a non-profit organization
to relocate the house, rehabilitate it and lease it from the
City for public benefit. In addition, the council approved
$85,000 to ready the site and make the necessary improvements.
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| Shotgun house at original
site at 2712 Second Street (Photos courtesy of the Santa
Monica Conservancy) |
The Santa Monica Conservancy, which plans to respond to the
City’s request and begin raising the estimated $250,000
to restore the dilapidated structure, hailed the council’s
June 26 decision.
“This house is a survivor,” said Sherrill Kushner,
who chairs the conservancy’s shotgun house committee.
“It’s been saved twice from demolition, been moved
twice to different storage sites, and now it will return to
Second Street, the same street and same orientation as its
original location, among other historic landmarks.”
If the conservancy, or another group, is able to raise the
necessary funds, Santa Monica’s last shotgun house will
be permanently located at the public parking lot at Second
Street at Norman Place, just a few blocks from where it was
originally built.
The relocation of the house, conservancy officials said,
will help improve the existing parking lot, which they say
has long been an eyesore and a source of complaints from nearby
retail stores and residents.
“The trash bins will be enclosed, and new lighting
and landscaping will be installed,” Kushner said.
Although current plans call for eliminating a parking space,
architect Mario Fonda-Bonardi, who urged the council to preserve
the landmark structure, has proposed a way to retain the current
number of spaces, Kushner said.
The council’s decision to save the house, which is
little more than 400 square feet, comes nearly ten years after
the structure was designated a City Landmark in 1998.
The house was moved to an airport hangar in July 2002, then
moved in November 2005 to its current storage location, after
some 50 gardeners converged on a meeting of the City’s
Recreation and Parks Commission to oppose a proposed move
to the Community Gardens in Ocean Park
The proposed permanent site one of 17 potential locations
conservancy leaders visited with City officials.
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